Macario

Dreamtime Painters
Words to Know
This story is set in Australia.
It happens in the Kakadu National Park.
A national park is a special area where animals and nature are protected.
a. Animals in Australia. Read the definitions. Write the number of the correct underline word to each item in the picture.
b. 1.- A kangaroo is an Australian animal that jumps on its back legs.
c. 2.-Insects are small living things with six legs; for example, beetles or spiders.
d. 3.- Reptiles are cold-blooded animals that lay eggs and have pieces of hard skin, or “ scales”, on their bodies.
e. 4.- A turtle is an animal with four legs and hard back covering that lives mainly in water.
f. 5.- Rock is the hard, natural material that forms of the earth.
The Aboriginal Civilization.Read the paragraph. Then match each word with the correct definition.
The Aboriginal civilization is one of the world`s most ancient years. ·Dreamtime” is the Aboriginal story of how the world began. Aboriginal artist often paint pictures about the Dreamtime story. Aboriginal art is very beautiful and very valuable.
1.- civilization ________a. the world on which we live.
2.- ancient___________b. someone who paints or draws
3. Earth ____________c. very old
4. Dreamtime _______d. the culture and society of a people.
5. artist __________e. paintings and drawings
6. art ____________f. an Aboriginal name for the time when the world began.
An Ancient Aboriginal Artist.
Australia is a very large country with a varied landscape. It has rain forests, the outback desert, and the seaside.It also has a special warm area in the North. Here, you can find art that is over 30,000 years old! It is the rock art of the Dreamtime Painters.________________________
1.- rain forest: an area with many trees and plants where it rains very often.
2.- desert: an area, often covered with sand or rocks, that has very little water.
Aboriginal rock art is ancient. It was around long before therewere roads and towns. It was in Australia long before people from other countries arrived. It comes from a time when Aboriginal rock artist painted the “Dreamtime”
Dreamtime is an Aboriginal story about the beginning of the world. It describes a time long ago when rocks, animals, plants, and people first came to the earth. It`s a big of Aboriginal history and culture.
Aboriginal images of theDreamtime can be seen in ancient rock paintings throughout Australia. There are large numbers of these paintings under the ground of Kakadu National Park; a park which is owned by the Aboriginal people.
Rock Paintings
Ancient Dreamtime Painters made many rock paintings long ago.
Thompson Yulidgirru is an Aboriginal artist. He still paints in the traditional Aboriginal way. He tells how helearned the old Aborigianal stories from hios grandfather. However, the stories go back much further than Thompson`s grandfather. Thompson explains, “When I used to go stay with my grandfather, I used to tell him, “Please… tell me the stories from my ancestors.””
Ian Morris is a naturalist who has lived in Australia most of his life. He has studied these Dreamtime paintings, and feels they are veryspecial. They are unlike any other paintings in the world. Morris explains; “They say that the rock art here goes back almost as far as any known civilization. They`re the oldest art records of human civilization in the world.”_________________________________________________
3. Thompson Yulidgirru:
4. ancestor: member person`s family from very long ago
5. naturalist: person who studies plants,animals and nature.
Predict
Answer the questions. Then scan page 12 to check your answers.
1. How long have the Aboriginal people lived in Australia?
2. Other than the Dreamtime, what kind of stories do the rock paintings tell?
The Aboriginal people have most likely lived in what is now Australia for at least forty thousand years. They may have even been here for as long as a hundred...